Well this morning the sun rose on a new man, a man who had broken the 1k mark. We got out to dog town about 6:30 and immediatly found out we couldn't range anything.
This is a problem we have been having with the Leica 1200 scan lately, when it is a bright sunny day the thing just doesn't wanna work past 700yds. Well we ranged various objects and got an idea of where we needed to be to ensure we were shooting past 1k.

We set up our portable bench and I laid out in the bed of the truck to spot for Bill (I call him BJ). He cracked off the first round at what we figured was 1150 and was about 8" high and left of a dog, not bad for a cold barrel shot at a fairly unknown range.

He loosed a few more rounds and managed to shower dirt on at least one on his first five shot string. I decided to shoot my 22-250 and see what it could do, it did very little. I was shooting at around 1150-1200 and shots were only getting within about 12 feet on my good shots.

I quickly switched to BJ's 243 win and began launching shoots. Our method was to simply guess the range as best we could and plug this into the exbal program and then walk our shoots onto the dogs. Within a few shoots i sent one 105 a-max to within a few inches of a prairie poodles head.

After switching back and forth once more me and BJ still didn't have any dead dogs and we took a little break to gather ourselves.

The evening was already a success beacuse fo the several close shots and the realization of exactly how hard it was to hit a pdog past 1k. After a little while BJ got back on the bench and we started shooting at a different location where the dogs were less skitish.

The sun was setting and the Leica decided to join the party and do its job and we got some ranges on a large dead tree surronded by dogs, 1060.

Bj started the attack and within 2 shots had pdogs wondering why dirt was flying on them. We usually only shoot 5 shots each and then wait but BJ was so close I kept telling him to shot more. Out of probably 8 shots bj missed 5 by 3 inches or less.

He decided to give me a run at them and I used his same elevation adjustment. i had two dogs on a mound near the dead tree and one was looking in my direction so I let him know I was there. The bullet landed just to his side and he waddled down his mound a little farther. My second shot land just below him and kicked dirt in his hair.

I adjusted up two clicks and left the windage the same. I centered the target dot on his chest and touched the 10oz accutrigger. The dog simply waddled farther down his mound.

As I reloaded BJ said the pdog was acting funny and just as I got the scope back on him I saw feet flopping around in the grass, he was hit. Bj yelled for me to put another round in him to keep him from going in a mound but I wasnt sure where that shot landed.

I gave BJ back the gun and he scanned for a dog in the same area to shoot but none were around. We grabbed the camera and rangefinder and began walking down to the area.

When we got to the tree we saw bullet marks all in the mounds and grass and I damn near stepped on my dog. The 105 a-max had slipped in just under his back and the second round landed about 3-4 inches to his left.

After some hollaring and dancing and me screaming like a giddy schoolgirl we headed back to the truck. We ranged from the dead dog to the truck and got 1048, 1049, 1050 with 1049 coming up a few times.

We didn't take any pics at the site of the kill and I am sorry for that, but we did take some at the truck when we got back. This was done with a stock savage 12bvss and a Leu Vari X III 4.5-14x50mm with a target dot. Here are some pics and sorry if my literary skills aren't as good as FiftyDriver's but at least i'm trying. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Thanks
Steve
This is the pick I am gonna send to VHA for my 1k membership.

This is our setup.

This is the pdog down.

If I can find some more pics I will post them asap. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

All in all it was a great day. Many near hits despite a 10 mph wind in the early going. Infact, I think I would have had one of the little suckers if he had not moved in the 1.3 seconds it takes the bullet to get there.

I think if we set up in the same place everytime the ranging problem will work itself out. We'll learn the distances to certain landmarks.

My congrats to Lerch. Although I don't think he could have done it without such a finely tuned firearm and such precisely loaded ammo!!! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

If I promise to build you a rifle that will score 50% on p dogs at 1000 yards, you have to promise me you will do nothing else but be my full time advertising system [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]!!

Sorry my friend, 1000 yards yards as you well know is a long poke with any rifle. I will get you a system to greatly improve your hiot percentages but I can not say you will be a 50% hitter at 1K with my rifles.

I will say that when you misjudge the wind or range a bit, you will miss by much less with the 270 Allen Mag then most rounds!!

Congrats to you as well, its just a matter of time the way you were dusting those critters.